Omnisend requires permission-based contact lists for all email marketing activities. According to our Terms of Use Chapter 9.4, you may only import, access, or use contacts who have explicitly opted in to receive emails from you. Purchased, rented, or third-party lists are not permitted.
Ignoring these guidelines can result in high bounce rates, spam complaints, and account suspension. Continue reading to learn how to comply with contact list management.
Before You Begin
This article explains best practices for collecting, importing, and maintaining compliant contact lists in Omnisend.
You'll learn how to avoid issues like abuse complaints, high unsubscribe rates, or high bounce rates.
If your account is suspended, learn how to troubleshoot it.
Evaluate Your List Health
Use these questions to identify potential compliance issues:
Did you collect your mailing list more than 1 year ago?
Have you purchased or rented any mailing lists?
Have you migrated from another email marketing provider?
Do you have a lot of role-based email addresses (info@, support@)?
Did your contacts explicitly subscribe to your email campaigns?
Have you imported contacts from personal/business inboxes?
If you answered "yes" to any of these, review the sections below for guidance.
Get Permission to Email
Before sending marketing emails, contacts must opt in to your list. Acceptable opt-in methods include:
Checking a marketing consent box at checkout.
Submitting a signup form (popup, embedded, landing page).
Texting a keyword to subscribe (SMS opt-in).
Signing up at an in-person event with documented proof.
For EU/GDPR compliance: Enable double opt-in to ensure explicit consent. Learn how to set up double opt-in.
When subscribers sign up, clearly explain what content they'll receive and how often. This reduces unsubscribes and spam complaints.
What doesn't qualify as consent:
Verbal agreements.
Offline list collection without documented proof.
Email addresses collected from business cards or invoices.
Inferred consent ("they're my customer, so I can email them").
💡 Tip: Contacts in Omnisend have three email statuses:
Subscribed (green) – opted in, can receive campaigns.
Non-subscribed (yellow) – placed an order but never opted in to marketing; can receive transactional emails only.
Unsubscribed (red) – previously subscribed but opted out; should only receive order-related transactional emails.
Avoid Stale Lists
Send emails regularly (at least monthly) to prevent your list from becoming stale. Stale lists occur when subscribers:
Lose interest in your brand.
Forget they signed up.
Abandon their email addresses (30% of users change emails annually).
Stale lists generate bounces, unsubscribes, and spam complaints. When recipients mark your email as spam, their internet service provider (ISP) is notified through a feedback loop. ISPs will block your domain if they receive enough spam reports.
Not all ISPs offer feedback loops. Some spam complaints reach us through non-traditional channels (e.g., direct emails to support), so they may not appear in your campaign reports.
💡 Tip: Segment inactive contacts (no opens/clicks in 6+ months) and send a re-engagement campaign before removing them.
Avoid Purchased, Rented, or Third-Party Lists
Omnisend's Terms of Use prohibit purchased, rented, or third-party lists. These lists often contain:
Old, inactive addresses (high bounce rates).
Spam trap addresses (blacklisting risk).
Contacts who never consented to hear from you (spam complaints).
Even under the best circumstances, purchased lists don't perform as well as organically grown lists. When you build your list, you collect subscribers genuinely interested in your business.
Third-party lists are also not permitted. These include:
Lists provided by associations, organizations, or partners.
Contacts who opted in to receive emails from another company (not you).
Lists shared within a "group of companies" without specific consent.
Even if contacts consented to Company A, that permission doesn't transfer to Company B. They must give explicit permission to receive emails from YOU.
If you've imported a purchased, rented, or third-party list, we'll ask you to:
Delete the entire list, or
Remove the non-compliant portion and provide proof of consent for the remaining contacts.
⚠️ Warning: Re-importing a contact who previously unsubscribed and marking them "subscribed" during import will override their opt-out status. Only do this if the contact has given new, explicit consent (e.g., signed up again via a fresh form). Otherwise, this violates GDPR and harms your sender reputation.
Avoid Improperly Collected Lists
Omnisend is strictly a permission-based email delivery service. If you collected contacts from different sources or without explicit consent, we may ask you to:
Delete all contacts who did not give permission.
Clean the list by removing inactive subscribers.
Provide documented proof of opt-in (e.g., signup form records, checkout consent screenshots).
Properly Gather Offline Contacts
If you collected contacts at a trade show, conference, or in-store event, you must have documented proof of signup (e.g., photos of signup sheets, scanned forms with signatures).
People often provide invalid email addresses during offline processes, leading to high bounce rates. Documented proof protects you if someone makes a spam complaint.
Examples:
✅ Good offline list: When customers buy from my offline store, I ask if they'd like to subscribe to email newsletters and promotions, and share a QR code to subscribe.
❌ Bad offline list: You set up a fish bowl by your cash register for customers to drop in business cards for a chance to win a free lunch. Later, you decide to send them promotional content.
💡 Tip: Use a Landing Page Signup Form at your conference booth with a tablet or QR code for instant online opt-in.
Prepare Relevant Email Content
Relevance is critical in email marketing. Emails work best when subscribers find value in them. If your content doesn't hold their interest, they may mark it as spam.
Examples of irrelevant content:
Promising interesting content, but sending only promotional emails.
Sending daily emails when subscribers expected weekly.
Promoting unrelated products or services.
💬 Email Optimization: 12 strategies to maximize campaign effectiveness.
Avoid Third-party Marketing
Third-party marketing occurs when you:
Market another product or service to your existing subscribers.
Switch company names without notice.
Send emails on behalf of another company.
Subscribers didn't sign up to receive information from the new company, causing confusion and spam complaints.
How to handle this compliantly:
Introducing a new product/service: Create a new list and send an introductory email, allowing subscribers to opt in.
Switching company names or rebranding: Send an email explaining the change and allow users to unsubscribe if they no longer wish to receive content.
Marketing-related services: Make it clear in your subscription process that subscribers may receive news about other services or products.
Reduce Unsubscribes with Preference Management
Before contacts unsubscribe completely, give them the option to adjust their email preferences. A preference center lets subscribers:
Choose email frequency (daily, weekly, monthly).
Select specific topics or product categories.
Update their contact information.
To set up a preference center:
Go to Store Settings → Preference Management.
Add custom fields (dropdown for frequency, checkboxes for topics).
Map each field to a custom property (e.g.,
Email_Frequency).The preference link will automatically appear in email footers.
After contacts update their preferences, create segments based on these properties (e.g., Email_Frequency is Weekly) and send targeted campaigns.
This approach reduces unsubscribes by giving subscribers control over their inbox.
Terms of Use Violation
If content or accounts violate our Terms of Use, we will suspend the account for investigation. Common violations include:
Sending to purchased/rented lists.
High spam complaint rates.
Malicious or prohibited content (phishing, illegal products).
FAQ
Can I re-import contacts who previously unsubscribed?
Only if they've given new, explicit consent (e.g., signed up again via a fresh form). Re-importing without new consent violates GDPR and harms your sender reputation.
Why can't I send marketing emails to customers who placed an order?
If they didn't check the marketing opt-in box at checkout, they're added as non-subscribed and cannot receive campaigns. They can still receive transactional emails like order confirmations.
Have any additional questions? Feel free to contact us at [email protected] or via the in-app chat.